First Marriage Then Love

106. Accidents ensue 

The call earlier was from Worker Chen, he had said, “The sample room, collapsed!” 

After An Ran had washed up and changed, she saw a mess of a scene. The room’s ceiling was completely collapsed, and had smashed a lot of things. The entire scene looked tragic. The only good thing that came out of this was that there wasn’t any one in the room so no one was injured. It was said that the collapse had happened early morning. Two workers had come by in the morning, they hadn’t even left the building yet, when they heard a loud ‘bang’. Then they turned back, opened the door and went in, and the scene was already like this. 

“Architect Gu, what do you think should be done now, next week is the inspection deadline. Now that it’s like this, renovating is impossible. If we construct everything according to the blueprint again, we won’t finish on time!” Looking at this mess, worker Chen did not want for the deadline to come. 

An Ran stared at the large chunk of the fallen ceiling, as well as the desks, chairs, buckets, etc that were smashed by it. An Ran’s heart was still beating wildly. She advances, reaches out to feel the pieces of chair and desk, and faintly says, “How could this be?” 

“I don’t know either. Everything was done according to the blueprint, if there was a problem with the blueprint, then my construction—” As he said that, worker Chen felt that he had said too much, and shut his mouth, looking slightly embarra.s.sed. 

An Ran faintly looked at him, doesn’t say anything. 

The so-called happy occasion did not come so misfortune would spread a thousand miles. When she returned to the company, nearly everyone in the company knew about the issue with the sample room. Seeing her come in, the receptionist, worried, asks, “Gu jie, are you okay?” 

An Ran looks at her, and powerlessly shakes her head. “I’m okay.” 

As she entered the hall, she sees Ling Lin looking quite pleased as she gets up from her seat and walks over to her, smiling as she says, “Heh, surprisingly your blueprint’s design collapsed. And you are considered our top architect?” 

An Ran stares at her, and just says, “We haven’t found the cause of it, so I would have to trouble you to please speak carefully.” 

“Heh.” Ling Lin sneers and glares. “Then I wish you good luck, hope that the result of the investigation ends up with a problem with your design.” After speaking, she turns around and returns to her seat. 

An Ran was beaten as she drags her body back to her office. However, right before she opened the door she happened to b.u.mp into Xiao xiao who was leaving her own office. Seeing her unsmiling smile, looking at her, she fiddles around as she leaves. 

An Ran takes a seat on her chair, and looks up as she leans back on her chair. Right now she was especially tired, this inexplicable tiredness. 

She doesn’t understand at all why the model had collapsed! She does not believe that there was a problem with her design, but she also doesn’t doubt Worker Chen’s construction. After all these past few days they have been investigating together, and she had spent more time in the template room than in her office. 

She suddenly sits up, and was about to open her drawer to take a good look at her blueprint, but when she opened it up she discovered, that the blueprint that was supposed to be in there had disappeared without a trace, she could not find it at all! 

As An Ran was turning tables to find the blueprint, somebody had knocked on the door. It was the receptionist, telling her that Huang De Xing would like to see her. 

An Ran nods. He doesn’t want to look for her, but wants her to go to him. This incident, certainly needs an explanation. For the company, for the project, for herself, all of them need it. 

Suddenly she remembered something, and called out to the receptionist that was about to leave, “Wait, is Chen Cheng outside?” When she returned she did not see her at all, and the model was such a big matter. She was at the scene for more than an hour, but did not see her come over. 

“Uh.” The receptionist blanked out, and tried her best to recall. She shakes her head, “I don’t think I saw her today. She can’t be late could she?” 

An Ran turns quiet. She has a bad feeling. In fact, she has

always admired Chen Cheng. She has a talent in designing, her ideas were very special, she was even thinking that if she trained her well, no more than two years, after she had acc.u.mulated enough experience, she expects that Chen Cheng would surpa.s.s even herself. Only, did she believe wrongly? 

She gets up and in large strides leaves the office, and stops in front of Chen Cheng’s seat. 

She reaches out to knock, “Knock knock knock.” 

From inside, Huang De Xing raises his voice and answers, “Come in.” 

An Ran pushes the door and enters. Huang De Xing was seated behind his desk, raises his head to see her enter. He frowns slightly, and faintly says, “Sit.” 

She pulls out a chair and takes a seat. Huang De Xing leans back against the chair, stares at An Ran and says, “When I arrived I dropped by the scene of the accident. How could things turn into this, could you give me an explanation?” 

An Ran lowers her head, then raises it to look up at Huang De Xing again. She somewhat forces a smile and says, “I will take full responsibility for this matter.” 

Huang De Xing frowns and asks, “So, are you saying that there was a problem with the design?” 

“No.” An Ran shakes her head, “Regarding the blueprint, I have absolute confidence that there isn’t a problem.” The scale of the blueprint when it was drawn, is able to tolerate any pressure etc, she had calculated everything accurately. There absolutely isn’t a problem. After all the foundation is the construction, later for people to live and move about the place, if you were inattentive and an accident occurs, the accuracy of the blueprint is the main responsibility and bearing. 

“Well, if it isn’t a problem with the design, how can you say that the responsibility is your’s?” Huang De Xing asks. 

An Ran forces a smile, and faintly says, “Even if there wasn’t an accident, I still have to account for this project, because the blueprint, is gone.” An architect who has lost their blueprint, is there anything more ridiculous than that? 

She doesn’t know if it was Chen Cheng who had taken the blueprint, because when she gave Chen Cheng a call, she did not pick up at all. 

“What!” Huang De Xing looks at her shocked, “The blueprint, isn’t the blueprint with you, how could it be gone!” 

An Ran shakes her head, and helplessly says, “I don’t know. I left it in a drawer in my office, but when I went to look for it, it was gone.” 

“Did someone steal it?” Huang De Xing asks. 

She raises her head to look at him, and says, “Chen Cheng is gone.” 

Huang De Xing frowns. This was very unexpected, “Are you suspecting that Chen Cheng has something to do with the model collapsing and the missing blueprint?” 

“I don’t know. I don’t have evidence, and I can’t find Chen Cheng. I’m unable to confirm whether or not she really has something to do with it.” An Ran states. She will not talk carelessly about false things. Even if she had some doubts, in the end she had no evidence. 

Huang De Xing turns silent. A while later he starts to speak, “An Ran, you must know how important this project is to us. I had to stand up to the resistance and fight in order to give this project to you. I know that you have a way of designing and are talented, and your work is also good. But those are not the important points, the main point is that we must seize this case, because that is our target for the second half of the year. But now that something like this has happened, how should I explain this to the board of directors?” 

An Ran looks at him, and asks, “What does Director want me to do?” 

Huang De Xing looks at her. A while later he starts to say, “You also know, it doesn’t matter why this had happened, the outcome is already here. Even if it really was Chen Cheng who had stolen the blueprint, we had already started on the template room, none of those are the main point. The main point is that this case is certainly no longer our’s, all our efforts have been wasted.” 

An Ran doesn’t say anything. She just listens silently. 

Huang De Xing continues, “The company will find somebody to investigate the true cause of the accident. Regarding who takes responsibility for it will be determined after the investigation. The main thing we have to do is determine how to redeem the situation.”

situation.” As he says that, he looks at her again, and continues, “This exercise manor has been the central goal of the company for the second half of the year. Now that it’s like this, the template was destroyed, the blueprint is lost, ruminating over these will be useless. This project, even though we are unwilling, there is no choice but to renounce it. So on one hand, the board members will not be able to hand it over, but if we had to hand it over, then it’s not impossible. Perhaps there is another way.” In between speaking, Huang De Xing fixes his gaze on An Ran, his expression indicated a deeper meaning. 

An Ran follows up with a question, “What other way is the Director pointing to?” 

Huang De Xing smiles, looks at her and says, “An Ran, you know what I am saying. If you could ask Special a.s.sistant Su, uh, no, right now he is Deputy Mayor Su, represent the company and capture some major projects for Ke Ji City, then I believe the board of directors will have no complaints.” 

An Ran doesn’t say anything, just stares at him. This is the first time that she felt that there was such a huge gain in marrying Su Yi Cheng. She had made such a huge mistake, yet she could use this method to remedy it. She truly does not know if she should laugh or cry. 

Huang De Xing could see her hesitation. Regarding this matter, An Ran had never forthright responded to him. Always evading it, had no intention of helping. He doesn’t force her, and just faintly says, “Think it over. You must be clear of it, that if this were a true tender, our company has the ability to capture it. Doing it this way is just to ensure it.” 

An Ran does not reply, and just nods her head. She gets up and retreats from Huang De Xing’s office. 

Returning to her own office, An Ran helplessly looks up as she leaned back against the chair. At this time, Su Yi Cheng’s call came in. She grabs her phone and answers the call, “h.e.l.lo.” 

Su Yi Cheng seemed to hear the difference in her voice, and asks, “Did something go wrong at work?” 

An Ran faintly nods, and only responds a while later. Suddenly she had regret, and couldn’t help but ask, “Su Yi Cheng, you told me that if I wanted to go back and let you support, how would it sound?” 

Su Yi Cheng chuckles. He doesn’t ask for the origin, and just chuckles as he says, “Sounds good.” 

An Ran also laughs. That was the best thing that she had heard today. After laughing, An Ran suddenly went serious, “Su Yi Cheng.” 

“Have I told you that I like to hear you call me Yi Cheng?” Su Yi Cheng says earnestly. 

An Ran found his serious tone funny. She nods and replies, “You’ve told me.” 

“Then why are you still calling your husband by his last name?” Su Yi Cheng counters. 

An Ran chuckles. Faintly, but it came from the heart. A while later, she then calls out, “Yi Cheng.” Her voice was soft, unlike the manner before as with strangers, awkward, even shy. 

Su Yi Cheng chuckles through the phone. He answers, “En.” From his voice one could tell that he wasn’t in a bad mood. No, it should be that he was in a very good mood. 

After chuckling, An Ran returned to the subject of her question, restraining her smile, she just says, “If I asked you to use your authority for private interests, would you do it?” 

On the other line, Su Yi Cheng went silent. A while later, he asks, “You would do that?” 

An Ran chuckles, and shakes her head, “No.” Even though she’s reached that step, she still would not involve Su Yi Cheng’s power to make a tender. Doing things fair and square has always been one of her principles, otherwise she wouldn’t have repeatedly declined Huang De Xing’s invitation. 

Su Yi Cheng also laughs. He faintly starts to say, “Since it’s unlikely, why would you ask. Isn’t this superfluous.” 

“I thought you would say yes.” An Ran jokes. 

Su Yi Cheng turns silent for a while, then starts to say, “An Ran, if there’s anything you can tell me, alright?” 

An Ran was taken aback. Then she starts to talk, and lowers her voice, “A problem popped up at work, making me feel powerless.” She suddenly felt like she had been knocked down. She only had one friend Lin Li, and did not have any other good friends. She actually

She actually quite admired Chen Cheng, but did not expect things to end this way. She does not understand why she would do something like this. Arguably, as a newcomer, others would not let them draw for half a year, or even let her partic.i.p.ate in such a huge project. This was equivalent to giving her a stage to show herself off, but everything was a little different from how she had imagined it. 

“If you are tired, I don’t mind having you stay home and I work. My savings is enough to cover you for the rest of your life, of course, if we’re not extravagant.” Su Yi Cheng replies, his tone confident. 

As An Ran was listening her heart warmed up. Apparently knowing that she has such a man behind her to support her she felt no fear. She smiles and states, “I already knew that, I’m not trying to politely ask.” 

“Good.” Su Yi Cheng laughs in reply. The couple continued to chat for a while, until Secretary Zheng entered and told him that the meeting would start soon, the two then ended the call. Sometimes things would be like that, things would come all at once, following one after another, not giving you a break, making people feel unprepared. 

It was noon when she received another call saying that Lin Xiao Fen was admitted to the hospital. The person who had called was her colleague Auntie Zhang. She said when Lin Xiao Fen started working, she suddenly started to feel dizzy, and now she is being brought to the hospital by another colleague. 

An Ran immediately felt her heart drop, then slowly started to recover. She hangs up the call and grabs her bag and hurries to the hospital, not even hearing Huang De Xing call out to her as she went out the door. 

When she reached the hospital Lin Xiao Fen was still in the emergency room, the doctor was still examining her. Lin Xiao Fen’s colleagues had already left and went back to work, only Auntie Zhang had stayed behind with her. An Ran slowly escaped the outside and went in, catching sight of Auntie Zhang on the plastic chair. She quickly asks, “Auntie Zhang, how’s my mom? What happened? Why did she suddenly faint?” The series of questions revealed her nervousness and concern. 

Auntie Zhang pulls on her hand, and pacifies her, “An Ran, calm down a bit. The doctor hasn’t come out yet, your mom will be alright. Don’t worry.” 

“She, why did she faintly so suddenly. Her health has always been good.” An Ran quickly started to feel tears coming up. 

Autnie Zhang patted and comforted her. She pulls An Ran towards her side and has her sit down on the plastic chair. She can only gently console her, “It will be nothing, don’t worry.” 

An Ran buries her face into her palms, and only lifts her head up a while later, asking Auntie Zhang, “Auntie Zhang, what about my dad?” 

“Oh, the first thing I did when Xiao Fen fainted was call him, but he was in the middle of a cla.s.s. When he was returning I already told him, right now he should be on his way to the hospital.” Auntie Zhang stated. 

An Ran nods, frowning. She turns and looks on worriedly at the curtain pulled up on the emergency room. 

“Swish---” 

At this time, the curtain to the emergency room was pulled open. The white-coated doctor comes out, looking at An Ran and speaking as he pulls off his mask, “Are you patient Lin Xiao Fen’s family member?” 

An Ran quickly nods, and quickly asks, “Yes yes yes, I am her daughter. Doctor, how’s my mother?” 

“Rest a.s.sured, your mother is fine. This time I think she is tired which is why she had fainted.” The doctor states. He turns to look at the emergency room, and continues, “However, I suggest that you guys stay in the hospital a few more days for further observation. Then we will do a physical examination, after all the patient is not young."

Hearing the doctor say her mother was fine, An Ran can finally let out a relaxed sigh. She quickly nods, “Okay, I will follow the doctor’s suggestion.” Her mother’s age was quite up there, doing a physical examination is a necessity. Otherwise if she faints out of nowhere again, it would frighten people. 

In emergency room, Lin Xiao Fen at this time had woken up. However she was still disorganized. She turns her head for a while, then asks, “Where is this?” 

The young nurse beside her smiles and answers her, “Auntie, this is the hospital. You fainted, that’s why you werewhy you were brought to the hospital.” 

Lin Xiao Fen frowns, and tried her best to think back. She could only remember that she was occupied with verifying accounting records, but suddenly her head felt dizzy, then she can only remember everything going black, and nothing else after that. 

“Mom.” An Ran comes in, looks at Lin Xiao Fen, fear still perhaps lingering, her nose starts to feel sour, her eyes starts to burn. 

“An Ran!” Lin Xiao Fen was surprised, looking at her, she asks, “Why are you here?” 

“You tell me, you scared me to death.” As she said that, the tears in her eyes couldn’t help but come down. She truly scared her to death, when she got Auntie Zhang’s call, she can’t recall how she got herself here. 

“Ai, Xiao Fen ah, it’s good that you’re okay. You gave everyone in the office a scare, even now my heart is still leaping.” Auntie Zhang also enters, seeing that she was awake, she was also relieved. 

Lin Xiao Fen, embarra.s.sed, says, “Sorry, I troubled you guys.” 

“What are you even saying, it’s fine as long as you’re okay.” Saying that, she raised her arm to take a look at her watch, “Alright, since you’re okay, An Ran is also here, I will take my leave first, I should go back and tell everyone the good news, I believe they should still be worried.” 

Lin Xiao Fen nods, “Please thank everyone for me.” 

Auntie Zhang waves her hand, and just says, “Take care of yourself and rest well, don’t worry about anything else, I will do your work for you.” As she said that she turned to An Ran and says, “An Ran, take good care of your mother.” 

An Ran nods, and gets up to send her off, “Auntie Zhang, I will accompany you out. 

“That’s okay, you don’t need to send me off. It’s not like I don’t know the way.” Auntie Zhang said frankly, “Stay behind and keep your mom company.” When she was done she turned around and left the emergency room. When the emergency room only had An Ran and Lin Xiao Fen left behind, An Ran was still worried and asks, “Mom, do you still feel unwell?” 

Lin Xiao Fen smiles at her, pats her hand, and says, “No, I’m fine, don’t worry.” 

“Then—” An Ran still wanted to say something, when suddenly she heard Gu Heng Wen call from outside the emergency room, “—Xiao Fen, Xiao Fen?” 

“It’s dad.” An Ran gets up and leaves, and sees that Gu Heng Wen was anxiously standing outside, his face was filled with worry and uneasiness. 

“Dad.” An Ran calls out, and walks over to him. 

Gu Heng Wen turns around, and finally sees An Ran behind him, “Your mother? What did the doctor say, why did she suddenly faint?” 

“The doctor said it might be fatigue, which is why she suddenly fainted. Everything"s okay. However, he suggested that we stay in the hospital for 2 days for further observation, and to do a physical examination.” An Ran stated. 

Hearing that, Gu Heng Wen finally felt relief, and asks, “Your mom? Where is she?” 

An Ran brings her over to Lin Xiao Fen’s side. She sees him look at her mother for a while, but was unable to say anything. Finally, he sits down by the bedside, and reaches out to hold her hand, and in a low voice he says, “It’s good that you’re okay.” These words to her, was also to himself. 

The three did not stay in the emergency room for long, as the nurse had already arranged a ward for them, and lead them to the ward. 

As Gu Heng Wen was there to go with Lin Xiao Fen, An Ran footed the bill and did the paperwork, and she also wanted to go to the market beside the hospital and buy some health products and what not. 

When An Ran was done with the hospital preparations and was about to leave the hospital, she walked out the door, when suddenly someone called out from behind. 

“Gu An Ran?” 

An Ran was confused as she turned around, only to see a medium height man behind her. He was dressed in an full-black suit, his hair combed neatly. Now as he was looking at her, he seemed to be very surprised. 

An Ran stares at him, and had to think for a while until she could finally remember who this man was. As a matter of fact, this was the ‘high-quality man’ that she had gone on a blind date with – Lin An Jie!

---END OF CHAPTER---